(NewsNation) — After more than 500,000 migrants traveled through the Darien Gap last year to reach the southern border of the U.S., Panama’s newly sworn-in president will seek cooperation to slow the flow of traffic.
José Raúl Mulino was sworn in Monday and has vowed to shut down migration through the Darien Gap. The treacherous pathway is the only passageway between Central America and South America and has already been traversed by more than 190,000 people this year, the Associated Press reported.
Most of the migrants passing through the region come from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and China. Mulino said during a visit to the Darien Gap last week he hopes to strike a deal with U.S. Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas to close the 10,000-square-foot migrant thoroughfare.
Mayorkas was expected to attend Monday’s swearing-in ceremony of Panama’s new president who has said U.S. cooperation is critical.
“I won’t allow Panama to be an open path for thousands of people who enter our country illegally, supported by an international organization related to drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Mulino said Monday, according to the AP. “I understand that there are deep-rooted reasons for migration, but each country has to resolve its problems.”
Immigration officials have said that the Darien Gap is the fastest-growing migration route. However, the mountainous region that also includes forests and rainforests is also costly. NewsNation previously reported that gangs in the Darien Gap charge migrants anywhere from $125 to $1,000 to cross.
Migrants have also been robbed, raped, and killed while passing through the region, officials say.
Rodney Scott, the former chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told NewsNation in May that closing the Darien Gap could be very significant in trying to limit the flow of immigrants illegally crossing into the United States.
Scott called the region an “interstate highway for massive illegal immigration and crime.”
“Just trying to patrol that area – it will be challenging,” Scott said. “This isn’t going to be something super easy. However, being able to control that have a partner in Panama that actually stops illegal migration has historically been a very significant measure.”
Scott said for the closing of the Darien Gap to work, there have to be consequences for illegal crossing into the U.S. He said the region of Panama is being destroyed by the large number of migrants crossing through it, making it imperative from an environmental, humanitarian, and a law-and-order perspective.
“I hope to sign a respectful and dignified agreement with the United States so the two countries can begin the repatriation processes of all these people who are accumulated here,” Mulino told reporters last week, according to the AP.
Mulino has vowed to deport migrants who continue to use the Darien Gap, but experts have said closing it entirely could be a very dangerous and expensive proposition. Yet, considering the control that the cartels have had of the region, those who have used the passageway say its closure is necessary.
“(Mulino) will have to close it,” Pedro Monte, a Venezuelan migrant who lost his wife on the way to the Darien Gap, told the AP. “It’s the most dangerous thing … there are thieves, there are deaths, it’s a pity that people lose their lives there.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting